Hapag-Lloyd AG and Maersk A/S, an entity under A.P. Moller - Maersk, signed an agreement for a new long-term operational collaboration called Gemini Corporation, to be launched in February 2025. The goal is to deliver a flexible and interconnected ocean network with industry-leading reliability.
“Teaming up with Maersk will help us to further boost the quality we deliver to our customers. Additionally, we will benefit from efficiency gains in our operations and joint efforts to further accelerate the decarbonization of our industry,” says Rolf Habben Jansen, CEO of Hapag-Lloyd.
“We are pleased to enter this cooperation with Hapag-Lloyd, which is the ideal ocean partner on our strategic journey. By entering this cooperation, we will be offering our customers a flexible ocean network that will be raising the bar for reliability in the industry. This will strengthen our integrated logistics offering and meet our customers’ needs,” says Vincent Clerc, CEO of Maersk.
Key takeaways:
- The new cooperation will comprise a fleet pool of around 290 vessels with a combined capacity of 3.4 million containers (TEU); Maersk will deploy 60% and Hapag-Lloyd 40%.
- As a part of the agreement, the two companies aim to deliver schedule reliability of above 90% once the network is fully phased in. Customers will also benefit from improved transit times in many major port-to-port corridors and access to some of the world’s best connected ocean hubs.
- Both companies set the most ambitious decarbonization targets in the industry with Maersk aiming for net-zero in 2040 and Hapag-Lloyd in 2045.
- As a consequence of joining this cooperation, Hapag-Lloyd will leave THE Alliance end of January 2025. In January 2023, Maersk and MSC announced that the 2M alliance will end in January 2025.
- This year, Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd will plan the transition from their current alliances to the new operational cooperation.
- Cooperation will cover seven trades: Asia/U.S. West Coast, Asia/U.S. East Coast, Asia/Middle East, Asia/Mediterranean, Asia/North Europe, Middle East–India/Europe and Transatlantic.
- Gemini Cooperation will comprise of 26 mainline services, complemented by a global network of dedicated shuttles centered around owned and/or controlled trans-shipment hubs – thereof 14 shuttle services in Europe, four in the Middle East, 13 in Asia and one in the Gulf of Mexico. These shuttle services will offer a fast connection with flexible capacity between hubs and ports served by shuttle services and vice versa.
